Ownership groups led by Spokane developers Dick Vandervert and Lowell McKee plan to start work soon on three major commercial projects in the Tri-Cities area with a total value of $34.3 million.

The planned projects include a hotel and an office building in Richland and an apartment complex in the city of West Richland, says Tim Stulc, vice president of Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, which will be the contractor on the projects. All three projects were designed by Russell Page Architects, of Spokane.

Stulc says the developers typically have three to five projects going on in the Tri-Cities area at any one time, although he adds, "These projects are larger in size than normal to have all at once."

The Tri-Cities economy, which is augmented heavily by government-funded work at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, "is quite a bit more vibrant" than the Spokane-area economy, he adds.

The hotel and office building will be adjacent to each other on George Washington Way in downtown Richland, and both will be owned by Richland Riverview LLC, of Spokane, one of the groups led by Vandervert and McKee. The apartment complex will be owned by M.V. Investments LLC, of Spokane, another of the groups.

The planned office building, to be called the Waterford Professional Building, has an estimated value of $17 million, Stulc says. It will have 70,000 square feet of office space on three stories atop two levels of parking, he says.

The four-story, $8.5 million Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel will have 116 suites, he says. Homewood Suites, a brand of the McLean, Va.-based Hilton Worldwide hospitality conglomerate, is an upscale, all-suites hotel brand that targets extended-stay travelers.

The hotel will be connected to a 6,700-square-foot event center that Richland Riverview developed two years ago.

Stulc says Vandervert Construction plans to apply for a building permit for the office building this month and apply for a permit for the hotel in four to six weeks.

Both projects are expected to be completed in eight to nine months from the time they're approved, he says.

Vandervert Construction already has obtained permits for the $8.8 million apartment complex, to be called the West Richland Apartments, although McKee and Vandervert are finalizing financing for it, Stulc says. The apartment complex, which will have 118 units in 10 buildings, is expected to be completed late this year, he says.

West Richland is near the Yakima River on the west edge of the Tri-Cities area, which includes Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick and is about 150 miles southwest of Spokane.